News, Opinion, and Media Analysis on Cincinnati, Ohio and the World From a Unique Perspective

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Cincinnati Victorious

That's something you haven't heard much this year.

OK. I'll admit it. I watched the finale of "Singing With the Stars," or whatever it's called. It was pretty good TV. And Nick Lachey's team won. The Enquirer's early coverage is here.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of people assumed Patti LaBelle's team would win. I know I did. I don't mean any disrespect to Lachey by that--say what you will about boy bands like 98 Degrees, but at the end of the day, Nick's a very talented singer. But Patti LaBelle is . . . well, Patti LaBelle. Lachey's choir, though, really put it together, from what I could tell by the live performances tonight and the clips from the past few days. (The vocal rendition the choir did of Flight of the Bumblebee was particularly imnpressive, I thought.)

In fact, Tracy Morgan (who NBC had announce the winner, in order to promote his new movie--yeah, that's right, now he's got his own movie) was so sure he'd be calling Patti LaBelle's name, he didn't bother to make sure he knew how to pronounce "Lachey." (Morgan thought the winning team's name was "lake-ee".) He tried not to pronounce it at first, just pointing and saying "this team over here. I think someone must have whispered to him to read the name.) I have to admit, I got a chuckle out of that. Five minutes too late, you could hear him yell, "Lachey" correctly. It was hilarious.

During the show, LaBelle announced that she's going to do at least one more performance (on New Year's Eve) with her choir. I hope Lachey follows suit. He seemed guininely moved by the experience. And it's not as if he's got anything better to do--none of his former bandmates are running for office right now, and he doesn't seem to be able to compete with Tony Romo in the romance department.

Sorry, that last bit was a little snarky. Congratulations to the outstanding group of Cincinnatians who got together for a good cause. And a big thank you to Nick Lachey, for making a Cincinnati team competitive on television. And I do hope we see Lachey and his choir singing somewhere again soon. They're entertaining.